I was lucky enough this week to attend the "United Cube" concert in London (Monday, December 5th). To many, the term "United Cube" may mean nothing at all - but to K-Pop fans, it's a great oppurtunity to see three Korean pop acts perform live.
"United Cube" involves 3 of Cube Entertainment's (a high profile Korean music agency) acts:
4minute 5 member girl group. They boast an individual style - they are confident, sexy and strong vocalists, and their main style of music is electronic-pop with elements of R&B and rap.
G.Na is a Canadian-Korean pop/R&B singer. Vocally, she is one of Korea's finest and her songs range from ballads to uptempo dance numbers.
BEAST 6 member boy band. They are known for their diverse talents - rap, dancing, singing. They've tackled club tracks, heart-wrenching ballads and midtempo R&B songs.
These 3 acts graced the Brixton Acadamy on December 5th 2011. Fans queued over night to see their 'bias' band - camping in just blankets in the bitter December weather.
For those fans, this is a once in a lifetime oppurtunity which is simply unmissable. K-Pop, whilst not an 'underground' music scene, is still pretty unknown to the masses. And whilst 4minute, G.Na and BEAST may not be household names to the average British family - they are quite simply royalty to K-Pop fans. So when Cube Entertainment announced that there would be a "United Cube" concert in London - fans jumped at the chance to see their Idols.
The follow video is filmed by myself, just to show the extent of the love for K-Pop in the UK! This was hours before the show was due to begin, and there is already hundreads of fans waiting to get in to see their favourite acts!
In fact, this is the first major Korean concert to be held in the UK - and just one of few to be held in Europe, for that matter. This is a big step for the K-Pop scene in London. Germany boasted a JYJ concert (a popular boy band) and Paris hosted the first ever SM Town in Europe (a similar event to "United Cube" with 5 acts under the SM Entertainment agency - the acts were Girls' Genration, Super Junior, SHINee, f(x) and TVXQ). And "United Cube" had it's first step into Europe this week - in my wonderful London town.
REVIEW
I managed to have a fantastic spot at the concert where I could fully enjoy the show!
4minute were the first act to grace the stage - performing their hits Hot Issue, HUH, Mirror Mirror and Heart to Heart and much MORE to the delight of the fans! 2 members of 4minute (the main vocalists GaYoon and JiYoon) proved the proficiency in English-language songs by singing Ke$ha's big hit "Blow". This reinforced how Korean acts are not only sucessful singing in their own language - but also fantastically performing an entire song in English.
G.Na then performed her big hits for the crowd - including Black and White and Top Girl. As a native English speaker, she of course had no problems conversing with the audience and expressing her delight to be in London. Her special performance of Rihanna's Take a Bow and Rude Boy really got the crowd going, too!
Finally, it was BEAST's turn. These 6 men are a huge hit with the ladies, but impressed everyone in the audience with their flawless dance moves, skilled rapping and magnificent live vocals. Their performed an array of their hits - including Shock and Fiction - and gave an energetic performance which proved why they're one of the top boy bands in Korea.
As an encore, the three acts "united" to sing their family song - "Fly So High". The joyous and celebratory dance number was the perfect end to the 2 and a half hour show. The three acts were clearly overwhelmed and touched by the support of their European fans and the fans themselves were overwhelmed to have finally been given the chance to see their Idols perform live outside of Asia.
All in all, I think this was one of the best live shows I've personally ever been to. I was vibrant, colourful and non-stop fun. It sets a good precedent for the other K-Pop bands to visit Europe to perform such shows.
Check out this sadly blurry video that I took of the 4minute girls performing their hit I My Me Mine:
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